Helmin, Leo

Abstract [en]

ABSTRACT:

The war in Ukraine seems to stand out from other wars in the aspect of participants. It´s quite remarking that separatists who origins from a civil uprising, in a short time, can create a fully conventional army, with a hierarchical organization, advanced weapon systems and equipment. Can it be because of that the character of the war in Ukraine in whole is new? This paper makes an attempt to explain the war in Ukraine with Mary Kaldor's theory of "new wars". The problem that the paper aims to resolve is if the characteristics of the war in Ukraine can be explained through either Mary Kaldor’s theory of new wars or old wars. The result highlighted in this paper is that Mary Kaldor's theories of new and old wars do not help to explain the war in Ukraine. It does quite the opposite, the war in Ukraine becomes more difficult to analyze and explain. Why it is so can either be because of that the war in Ukraine in some cases are more complex than other wars or that Mary Kaldor's variables in the theories are not sufficiently distinct between old and new. For example, the theory of old wars can be traced back to wars during the 17th century, which gives the old wars theory a broad variety of wars. Wars that even, when compared to each other, is distinctively different.